Thursday: It was cloudy last night, but I can't say I was disappointed. We were pretty tired after walking around Key West. We had a good lunch with old friends Toni and Larry at that beachfront bistro that we often bike to, Salute. Went to the specialized KW bookstore -- no new Hemingway or Fitzgerald -- the lazy guys have quit writing just ( Read more... )

Wednesday: It's a pretty horrible morning, for the beach: Cold rain lashing all night long. My only thought Thank god we aren't stuck in a tent! There've been plenty of star parties that we spent shivering in the rainy dark while the invisible stars wheeled overhead in uncaring invisibility.

In space, no one can hear you shiver.

Which I recall in ( Read more... )

We did have good dark skies last night. I didn't set up a scope -- Gay and I just wandered through the lovely darkness (trying not to bump into anybody's expensive treasure!) looking through other people's. Some lovely familiar sights. The most impressive might have been the least impressive if you didn't know what you were looking at, a dwarf star ( Read more... )

Sunday: So here I am on Key Largo. About as far from Bogart and cigarettes and shots of straight whiskey as you could imagine. Well, it's too early for that anyhow. In a generic Holiday Inn, though I think it's actually called something else. A Home2. Perhaps a distant relative of R2D2. All plastic and pastel.

Coffee that has heat and caffeine but ( Read more... )

This is one of those "who woulda thunk" moments.  I'm down in Merritt Island. Florida, just a few miles from the launch pads that have been a gateway to the Solar System for decades, and I'm drinking coffee from an OU Sooners coffee mug.  It's more than half a century since I went off to college in Norman, Oklahoma, and met Claude and Karen Keezer ( Read more... )

When I  was in college my relatives sometimes invited me down to their fishing cabin in the Louisiana bayou, where the relatively shallow water was teeming with alligator gar.  Big suckers, more than a yard long.  Good eating, though the white locals disparaged them as "colored-person food" (when they were being polite).    My white relatives knew ( Read more... )

From Gay: Early Bird Books is featuring Joe's collection "Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds" just today for only $1.99! You can sign up here: http://www.earlybirdbooks.com or go directly to http:// ( Read more... )

No excitement with the model yesterday.  A middle-aged guy who seemed nice enough, but with no energy.  I drew one 20-minute pose and called it a day . . .

[Here insert twenty minutes of fussing around with the iPhone.  The battery ran down and I can't find the proper adaptor to plug it into the wall.  I have four other adaptors, but they don't ( Read more... )

Jack Williams came into town yesterday to give a "house concert" at our friends Brandy & Christina's place, with Christina putting out a generous spread of snacks.  About thirty people came, and Jack treated us to a very lively time, about two hours of songs new and old.

It's a new way of having concerts that's becoming more and more popular in ( Read more... )

Well, another holiday season sputters out.  A pretty calm one.  Sixty-five people signed the guest book, plus a significant number who were too young to do so, or too confused, or had to protect their identity from galactic spies.  No music, I'm afraid.  It was too cold to use the porch comfortably.

(I didn't know more than half of the people who ( Read more... )